Are You Making Your Workouts Harder for No Reason?

I’m sure you always hear me, and the BBG Community go on about pushing yourself and completing harder workouts to help reach your goals. Whilst pushing yourself in certain areas can definitely help you to become stronger and fitter, there are a few ways you can actually be making your workout harder (and NOT in the good way!)

Here are 3 signs you are making things harder than they could be:

1. You’re Only Doing Cardio

If your goal is to become fit, lean and strong, completing ONLY low-intensity cardio probably won’t help you reach them. The reason for this is resistance or weight training helps to build lean muscle, which can increase your metabolism. It can also leave your body burning fat even AFTER you have finished your workout.This is the one thing low-intensity cardio is not necessarily able to achieve. So while cardio may be a great starting point or a great way to increase fitness, on it’s own it is certainly not the best way to build strength or achieve tone.

Try adding a few resistance sessions into your weekly workout routine, and combined with cardio, you should see much more improvement!

2. You Don’t Eat Enough

One of the first things people think when they want to lose weight is to ‘cut back on food’. While reducing your calories a small amount may increase your ability to lose weight or fat, people can fall into the trap of thinking that ‘less food = faster results’. This way of thinking can cause girls to skip meals and eat far less than what they should.

What many girls don’t understand is that your body needs calories and nutrients to function. When you eat far less than what is required (i.e. undereating), it can make increase stress in your body, which can make it very difficult for your body to lose weight or fat. So essentially, you may begin to feel exhausted because you are not fueling your body, and then become frustrated because you are training hard at the gym while seeing zero progress. The trick is to find a way of eating that is sustainable, provides your body with the energy (calories) and nutrients it needs. This way you can reduce the amounts stress on your body and increase fat burning potential.

3. You Don’t Stop Working Out

Whilst regular exercise is super important, so is REST. I can’t stress this enough, girls! Whilst doing intense resistance training sessions every day might sound like a great idea, you are at risk of overtraining your body. Essentially, this means that your body hasn’t had enough time to rest and recover, so it is constantly in a state of ‘shock’. On top of this, you may find yourself experiencing unnecessary fatigue and being extremely irritable.

Remember to break up your workout days, girls! Stretching, foam rolling and rest days are JUST as important as your resistance days!

Now that you know what you could be doing wrong - it’s time to SWEAT ;)

Love, Kayla xx

* Results may vary. Strict adherence to the nutrition and exercise guide are required for best results.